Interesting eBay tip inside a sellers listing (to use Google) Good or Bad?

[wendybac]

I found this inside a sellers listing today:

"Ebay Tip of the Week! Having trouble finding exactly what you are searching for on Ebay? Getting strange, unrelated results? Try using Google to find the item of interest on Ebay. Their search engine produces more true results. Try it, it works!"

What do you think...bad or good?

[xgoblazersx]

Good.... Very good.  I've done this when trying to find out how much to list an item for, that may have sold months ago, and would not pull up on eBay because of that.  Also, Google's keyword search is more accurate than eBay's.  Try it out.  You'll still end up buying the item on eBay, just spending less time sifting through the noise.

[thenobletuckylife]

Awesome Idea Wendy and thanks for the post.

From 2010 through pretty much the end of 2013 we simply had all we could do to keep up with our sales due to the packing time involved and 1 day shipping all our listings had.

Back then we had our store and I would use the "OMNI" feature to track where our activity was and where it was coming from.

A good portion was directed from an ebay search but we also had many many repeat customers.

The interesting thing was many times upwards of 30% of the traffic was driven to our ebay store for strong selling listings that we populating on the first page of google all the time.

Our spelt flour/handmade beeswax candles/buckwheat flour where just a few of the steady "on the first page" of google successes that drove traffic to our store here.

We were getting so much traffic directed to our ebay store that I closed down our own ecommerce site after about 6 months of overlap.

Mr C

[copper.boom]

That text fails to specify you need to add the following to the end of your search term to pull up results only on eBay: 

site:ebay.com

If you don't do that then other shopping sites will likely pull up in search above the eBay results. The seller is sending traffic & customers elsewhere by adding that to their listing.

[tunicaslot]

Google is still featuring many of the ebay items in search - even when I just google a UPC - the Ebay listings come up if a seller has put in the UPC for the item.

Kind of blows Tony C's rant out of the water. Are they providing as many results as we once saw - I don't know as back then Ebay search worked and there was no need to google.

[buyselljack2016]

When I am selling something that I have a part # for, and want to get a better idea of what it fits/application, I often go a google search with the #.

Many times eBay listings show on the 1st page.  Some have ended. Depends upon how many there are.

[liw48]

Can someone tell me how you get listed in Google Shopping like this?

[gracieallen01]

Gee, I thought this was common knowledge.  I've been doing it all along - first to image to identify, when needed, and other times to see what was available.  I mean, since 'can't-see-me', it has been the only way to fly.  Well, unless you want to watch the 'race to the bottom'.

And, it is even better when you turn cookies off - no reference points for any search engine to get a false starting point.

[gracieallen01]

One of the main problems with google is that they still have a lot of the dead-ends supplied by ebay from when they were gaming the search.   Probably never going to get rid of them.  And, still, when something from ebay comes up, it may be months old or just a category something WAS in.  Lots of false leads.

[chrysylys]

No, I'm not interested in enriching another megagiant.


I use them for news and basic searches. Nothing more. The Duck seems to work just as well for those things too.

[wendybac]

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@gracieallen01 wrote:

Gee, I thought this was common knowledge.  I've been doing it all along - first to image to identify, when needed, and other times to see what was available.  I mean, since 'can't-see-me', it has been the only way to fly.  Well, unless you want to watch the 'race to the bottom'.

And, it is even better when you turn cookies off - no reference points for any search engine to get a false starting point.

---

What I found so interesting is that the seller (within their listings) seemed to be taking a sort of jab at eBay and pointing out how messed up their search is.  Using the phrase: "getting strange, unrelated results" and "Using Google...produces more true results".  What I meant to be asking was...is it good or bad to put this information in our listings?  If it would help our customers find us...I'm thinking maybe I should start doing something similar.  Or....would eBay frown upon that?

[chrysylys]

Again, why promote another megagiant? There are quite a few search engines.

[xgoblazersx]

Wrong person.

[xgoblazersx]

Total grey area.  Ebay may see it as, "leading others off of ebay."  Or, they may see it as, going to a search engine therefore, is not going off ebay because they will come back to ebay.  Wouldn't recommend doing that in a listing, but it is a good practice to look on Google.  You can also see what other sites are selling the item for.

[tunicaslot]

grace - I'll disagree as I've gone to many of these listings found by googling and they are active. As a matter of fact - last week bought a book on here I found by googling. It didn't come up in Cassinni search when I tried here first - but google found it.